Re: something rotten in the state of Denmark

heh. Nowhere did I say it wasn't the "intellectual's" fault themselves,
of course. Taking the article at face value, it seems that the
intelletuals themselves don't know their own purpose, and that was as
frustrating to me as the knee jerk anti-intellectualism I see almost
everywhere.

But come on, Scottie. You're in the analysis field, no? Do people
_really_ need someone with your expertise? Wouldn't a sympathetic
friend do just as well? Isn't it arrogant of you to think you can
really help people get through their lives, that they're so weak and
dependent that they need you?

The problem I really have is with the rejection of public critique of
mass culture by mass culture, with the general unwillingness of people
to hear something that's not what they are used to hearing. Instead,
mass media outlets are more devoted to regurgitating patriotic clichés
than asking hard questions and maybe, just maybe, make us question the
motives behind our own actions.

As a psychotherapist I'd think you'd appreciate that...

Jim

Scottie Bowman wrote:

> '... So of course the intellectual is considered marginal
> in today's society ...'
>
> My skin crawls to hear yet another recital of this great
> division between the slopeheads - gullible victims of the money
> conspiracy - & the intellectuals, that precious minority who
> 'think more deeply' but are sullenly rejected for their 'smartness'
> by an envious biomass.
>
> In my case the brain-washing with the success myth began
> in infancy when my mother - my very own mother, dammit -
> used to tell me the story of the girl Julia Roberts' chum called
> Cinder-fucking-ella.
>
> (Not so long before, when the intellectuals were in the saddle,
> when the thinkers' establishment was as much church as
> university-based - & by no means marginalised - the acquiescence
> of the masses was obtained with a similar promise: that of life
> after death.)
>
> Despite their advantage of brains & diligence, the intellectuals
> themselves are - strangely - excused all blame for this awful
> state of affairs.
>
> It seems to be all OUR fault. We don't read carefully enough,
> aren't willing 'to make the effort', don't care about books deeply
> enough, don't turn up for PTA meetings, swallow any old shit
> pumped out by Hollywood & the television. Et cetera. Et cetera.
>
> It couldn't, I suppose, have anything to do with THEIR
> navel-centred obsessions, THEIR jargon-loaded signalling to
> each other, THEIR reluctance (or, whisper it, could it be their
> inability?) to write plain words, & above all, that insistently
> misunderstood, ill-done-by whine that informs so many of their
> utterances.
>
> No? I thought not.
>
> Scottie B.
>
>
>
>
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Received on Thu Apr 24 10:25:07 2003